


Proposals

by Idzzdi



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Wedding Rings, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-13 23:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/830189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idzzdi/pseuds/Idzzdi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis wants to propose to Harry. Harry wants to propose to Louis. Liam is stuck in the middle and things are bound to go wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proposals

Louis was Liam’s best friend. And even though Harry and Louis had been dating forever, Louis still came around to talk to Liam every now and then, when it came down to the important things in life. And so Liam wasn’t all that surprised when one morning on the tour bus Louis came to find him in their little kitchen corner. Liam, as usual, was up and about at an early hour already, though normally the other boys – and especially Louis – liked to sleep in whenever they got the chance to.

Liam was just making tea when the oldest band member came shuffling out of the back room where the bunks were and sat down on the couch, fiddling with his hands nervously. Filling water for two in the kettle now Liam glanced at Louis quickly over his shoulder before turning back to fixing their drinks.

The silence between them dragged on and only confirmed Liam’s suspicion that something was on Louis’ mind.

“Spill.” He ordered when he sat down across for Louis, handing him a cup of tea. For a moment Louis looked like he wanted to argue, to deny that there was anything to spill, but then he only lowered his head and let out a defeated sigh.

They sat in silence again and Liam waited patiently for his friend to collect his thoughts and share them. It took him longer than usually, but just as Liam was about to worry Louis spoke up.

“If I- What would you think-” He stuttered, biting his lip nervously and only glancing down at his steaming mug.

“Lou?”

“Do you think Harry loves me? Like really _loves_ me?”

“Wha?” Liam asked, confusion written all over his face. “Where’s this coming from?”

“Can you just answer the question?”

“Louis, I- Of course he does. You guys have been dating for.. _forever_. Have you seen the way he looks at you? He’s _totally_ gone for you.”

“Oh.” Louis replied, sounding almost surprised, though a small smile was tugging on the corners of his lips. Liam only watched him for a while, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. He knew not to push his friend, but the half amazed half pained expression on Louis’ face worried him nevertheless.

“Louis?”

Louis didn’t look up for his mug. “If I- Do you think Harry would- I mean if I were to-”

“Sentences, Tommo.” Liam reminded him and Louis nodded quickly, shaking his head lightly before taking a deep breath.

“Would he say yes if I asked him.. to.. you know.” A long pause followed in which Liam was confused and Louis was lost for words. “Marry me?” He finally added and Liam’s jaw fell open only the tiniest bit.

“Wow.” He breathed, though he really didn’t mean to. Louis watched him intently, gauging his reaction.

“You.. you wanna marry him?” Liam asked eventually, trying not to sound disapproving.

“I.. yes. I mean- We basically live together and.. I just don’t see me being with anybody else. Ever. And I.. I’ve thought about it. But I’m sure of it, so.. Yes. I wanna marry him. Or I want him to marry me. Whatever.” He gave Liam a tired smile, looking for approval in his friend’s brown eyes.

“Well then.” Liam said, scooting a little closer towards Louis. “How’re we gonna do this?”

“You think I should ask him?”

“Most definitely. He’s gonna say yes.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Now what’s your plan?”

~

Louis was determined to do this without Liam’s help. Well, not without moral support but when he went shopping to get everything he needed to pop the big question he chose a time when all the other four boys were busy with their vocal coach. Liam didn’t need to ask to know that Louis wanted to be on his own and so he didn’t push his friend, trying to concentrate on the vocal exercise he was supposed to be doing right now.

The coach seemed to realize that two of the four boys were off that day and let out a frustrated sigh before ushering them out.

“Go. Get your heads sorted out. I can’t work with you lot like this.” He said, sounding exhausted rather than annoyed. And so they boys went, Niall and Zayn exchanging mischievous looks as they climbed into the back of the tour bus, laughing loudly.

Harry stopped in the front room, dropping down onto on of the couches with a loud huff.

“Tea?” Liam offered and Harry nodded thankfully. A little while later the two boys were sitting across from each other, sipping their tea in silence. Liam looked up and sent the younger boy a quick smile, but all he got in response was yet another sigh.

“You okay?” Liam wanted to know, but Harry only shrugged.

“Missing Lou. Where is he anyways?” He looked around a bit, both boys well knowing that Louis wasn’t just going to pop up from behind the couch.

“Err.” Liam started, trying not to act awkward, or suspicious in any way. “Getting stuff.”

Harry only hummed and nodded slowly, his thoughts seemingly far away. Liam drifted off a bit himself, thinking about the show they were playing tonight, but Harry pulled him back into reality when he spoke up.

“So, I know Lou and I are dating and all. But you- You are his best friend. And you always will be.” He stated and Liam only kind of looked back at him, trying to figured out where he was going with this. Was he trying to tell him to back off?

“I mean you.. know what he thinks. How he works. Right?”

“Well, Harry. You’re his boyfriend, so I mean- Best friend, boyfriend. It’s like.. basically the same thing.. Except Louis and I don’t fuck.” He added in the end and yeah well. Harry and Louis _did_ fuck, everyone who had ears and the pleasure to spend a couple nights in row with them in a cramped tour bus knew. But that was beside the point, so Harry only smirked a little to himself, but dropped the topic other than that.

“But like.. Okay, erm. If I were to, like, ask Lou to.. be mine. Like _really_ be mine. Would that be too much?”

Liam gaped at him for a moment, trying to get his thoughts together. Was Harry really implying what Louis thought he was implying?

“You want to propose.” Liam deadpanned, eying Harry suspiciously. Because really, what was the chance of _both of them_ planning on proposing?

“Not a good idea?” Harry asked carefully, furring his eyes in worry and looking like Liam’s opinion on this would change his completely.

“No, I mean- yes.” Liam stuttered, trying to think fast and come up with a good way to tell Harry, that _yes_ they should get married, but _no_ he couldn’t ask Louis, because Louis was already planning something and he would ruin it. But Liam couldn’t tell Harry that, because then _he_ would ruin it and so he kind of only starred at the younger boy, hurrying his brain to work faster as the time trickled by.

“Harry-” He began, scratching the back of his neck nervously. _Oh my God,_ this was kind of really exciting. “You and Louis are lovely together.” He said, trying not to squeal on the outside. _Marriage, marriage, marriage!_ He felt he kind of deserved dips on best man.

Harry gazed at him expectantly, his eyes growing wide.

“But.. Haz, I don’t know, I just don’t see _you_ proposing. I mean-” He struggled, trying not to give away what he knew. “It’s just.. You don’t top. You don’t propose.” He finished quickly and Harry was gazing at him with big eyes now.

“I do to-”

“La La La!” Liam was chanting, clasping his hands over his ears. “TMI, La La La.”

Harry was chuckling now, his eyes still wide, but momentarily distracted from the proposal issue. When Liam shut up and Harry calmed down the two boys were looking at each other again, silence settling in.

“I guess what I’m saying is.. Just wait.”

~

Two days later Liam found himself sitting in their green room right before the show, watching Louis from the corner of his eyes who was talking to Harry. They stood by the window, speaking quietly, something they did quite often before their shows. Liam was sitting with Niall – where the heck was Zayn? - and they were chatting as well, though Liam wasn’t really paying attention.

Louis had told him he wanted to ask Harry today. Today after their show he was going to set up his little something and pop the big question. So far he seemed to hold up pretty well Liam thought.

During the show however, that changed.

Louis didn’t particularly do _bad_. But he was nervous and Liam could sense it. Maybe he was looking for it he thought, because none of the others boys seemed to notice in particular, but maybe they were too wrapped up in the show. That tended to happen a lot. Performing was like a drug; blinding all your senses and making you feel numb.

The only thing that made you feel more blinded and more numb was the post performance high. It felt a little bit like falling in love was described in books and though Liam had never felt this way when actually falling for someone, he thought the description fit their current situation pretty well.

They all made their way back to green room, chatting and laughing, talking a little louder than necessary with the fans’ screams still ringing in their ears. Niall was the first to claim the shower and Zayn and Harry dashed right after him, trying to claim their spots as well and so Liam and Louis found themselves alone in the green room after a moment.

“I guess I’ll..” Louis started, swinging his arms aimlessly.

“You need help with anything?” Liam offered, giving Louis a reassuring smile. The older boy looked hesitant for a moment, but then motioned for Liam to follow him as they left the room again. They made their way back down the hallway they had just come from.

Half way back to the stage Louis entered a random and what Liam thought to be empty room. He was about to follow Louis inside when said boy returned already, carrying several bags in his hands.

“Here.” He muttered shoving two of them in Liam’s arms and Liam only accepted them, following Louis quickly as they kept walking.

In the end Liam found himself right where he had been about ten minutes ago; on stage.

“Lou-” He began tentatively, watching their surroundings as Louis dropped his bags on the floor and dashed to the backstage area quickly. From his position on the stage Liam could watch him moving things around and finally pulling a small table behind him, as he stumbled back on stage. Liam watched Louis struggle with the heavy furniture piece for a moment, before dropping his own bags as well and walking over to help him carry the table to the middle of the stage.

“Candlelight dinner on stage?” Liam guessed as Louis bent back down to rustle through the bags. He didn’t reply and Liam only took his silence as a yes, bending down to look through some bags as well. Plates and silverware, lights, a long white candle, champagne bottles.

Liam took the items and set them on the ground carefully, watching Louis as he did so. The older boy seemed to be looking for something specific, opening each bag and then shoving it away with a dramatic sigh.

“What are you looking for?” Liam asked, trying to take some of the obvious stress away from his friend.

“Table cloth.” Louis answered and Liam dug right into helping him look. “It’s not there. It’s not there.” The older boy kept chanting, sounding slightly maniac with his voice going high.

“Nah, we’ll find it.” Liam assured him. A table cloth was big, it surely couldn’t be that hard to find, could it?

Five minutes later the catastrophe was complete.

Louis was close to tears.

The table cloth still hadn’t been found and so Liam went ahead, using napkins instead to cover the rather not so nice looking surface of the table. Lights draped around the plates and candles scattered all around it look rather nice, Liam thought.

That of course was until the napkins caught fire.

The light must have burned through, or maybe one of the candles, Liam couldn’t really tell. But he also didn’t really care as he dashed to the backstage area, looking for water or a fire extinguisher or anything really, to keep the damage to a minimum.

The fire obviously hadn’t been great for the food placed on the table, but the liters of water Liam poured over the table in an effort to extinguish the fire, gave the expensive steak-with-burned-something meal the rest.

Louis was positively in tears now.

~

“Obviously I shouldn’t propose.” Louis muttered the next morning when Liam came to wake him up. For the first time in a long while Louis and Harry had not shared a bed; or a bunk for that matter. After the fire incident Louis had been a nervous wreck and Liam had to arrange someone to take care of their mess while he put Louis to bed, telling the others that he wasn’t feeling well and needed some rest. Fortunately they had all left them to it and called it an early night as well, sparing Liam awkward explanations that he didn’t have.

The next morning they were up and about rather early again, but Liam managed to stay back, claiming to look after Louis. Which in a way he really actually did, when he brought tea to the oldest band member’s bunk, waking him up softly.

“None sense.” Liam disagreed to Louis’ complaint about the proposal. “A few things went wrong, so? Try again. Tonight we play another show and you can do it right after. We’ll make sure there’s a table cloth and maybe we skip the lights this time and everything will be fine. Harry doesn’t need to know the first time we nearly burned down the entire venue.”

Liam chuckled lightly, trying to lighten up the mood, but Louis only gazed at him impassively. He seemed in no mood to joke and Liam only made a sour face at him.

They sat in silence again after that and Louis sipped on his tea. Liam tried to think of ways to encourage his friend, but he knew sweet talking the events of last night wasn’t in Louis’ interest, when the older boy didn’t even look at Liam now.

He didn’t say it again, but Liam knew that Louis felt too mentally exhausted and shot down to give the whole proposal idea another shot anytime soon. He sat with him for a while, but decided to leave him to his own thoughts after a while, taking the empty mug with him as he made his way to the front of the bus. He heard Niall and Zayn laughing outside and through the small window on the side he could see them playing football.

“Is he okay?” Harry asked from behind him and Liam jumped a little as the low voice startled him.

“Scared me.” He muttered back, setting Louis’ mug in the sink and then taking a seat across from Harry. “And yeah, he is.” He answered Harry’s previous question. “Just a little tired. A lot going on and all that.”

Harry hummed in agreement, scratching his forehead thoughtfully. Liam didn’t need to take a second look at the frown on Harry’s face to know something was up.

“What is it?” He asked softly, trying to encouraging, but also letting Harry let that he wasn’t going to get away with a mumbled “Nothing”. Harry understood.

“I just- I mean, I told you that.. It’s just that one day I’m thinking about marrying him and now I have to worry about whether I’m losing him altogether.”

“What makes you think that?” Liam asked, his eyes growing wide in confusion.

“Well,” Harry began, looking up at his friend in hesitation. “He’s not well and he’d rather have you around then..” He trailed off, but Liam didn’t need him to finish the sentence. He wanted to disagree, tell Harry that it wasn’t _like_ _that_ , but Harry was quicker. “I mean, I _know_ you two aren’t like that. And I’m not jealous or anything, but I’m just wondering why he won’t talk to me.”

And oh. Liam hadn’t really seen it that way. Harry was really kind of sensitive he thought. But well, it wasn’t his job to worry about that now.

“No, Harry. He _does_ want to talk to you, he’s just still asleep.” Liam lied smoothly, successfully making some of the deep lines on Harry’s forehead go away.

“Actually,” He picked up after a while, making the younger boy look up at him again. “Do you still feel like proposing? Because if you do, I think you should.”

~

It was kind of ironic, Liam thought, when Harry told him about his plan to propose. Much like Louis, he thought it needed to be something music or concert connected and honestly it was only a mild surprise when Harry asked him to help prepare everything.

“Right, what do you need me to do?” Liam asked helpfully as him and Harry got dressed a couple days later for their show that night. The curly haired boy was doing up the buttons of his shirt, chewing on his bottom lip nervously.

“Erm, it’s gonna be.. _during_ the show. And could you like maybe.. introduce the whole thing?”

“ _Introduce_ it? Like how?”

“I don’t know, I just can’t go ‘ _Hey Lou, wanna marry me?_ ’ out of nowhere.” He said in a hushed voice, glancing around the empty room. They were by themselves, but the other three boys had yet to get dressed, so they might just barge in at any moment.

“Well, but what should I say?” Liam whispered back. “We don’t have a marriage proposals part in the show. I don’t know how to introduce something like that.”

“Liam.” Harry pleaded quietly, making the other boy roll his eyes.

“When did you wanna it anyways?”

“I don’t know, Liam. Maybe after the twitter questions? I don’t-” He whispered animatedly, shutting up immediately when the doors swung open. Niall and Louis came walking in, laughing loudly at something Niall said.

“Just think of something. _Please_.” Harry whispered one last time before tearing his gaze from Liam to greet his boyfriend. Liam watched as Harry put on a nervous smile and kissed Louis’ cheek.

“Why aren’t you wearing the gray blazer?” Louis asked, tugging on the front of Harry’s shirt impatiently. “I thought we were gonna match.” He had a little pout on his face, gazing over at the pile of clothes he was to wear for the show that night.

“Erm,” Harry hesitated, frowning a little as Louis stepped away from his embrace. “It’s just that- that the gray blazer doesn’t have pockets.”

“Right, were you planning on bringing your wallet or what?” Louis snapped and Liam lowered his eyes quickly, feeling like he was intruding on something personal. Whatever had been going on between Harry and Louis lately was intense and put them both on edge. Louis on the edge of being a bitch and Harry on the edge of crying.

“Sorry, Lou.” He muttered, his eyes fixed on his hands and Liam saw the small black velvet box he was holding before tugging it into the pockets of his black blazer.

“Of course.” Louis replied sarcastically, not granting Harry another look as he grabbed his clothes and took them to another room to get changed there.

“It’s okay.” Liam said right away as soon as the door had fallen shut behind the oldest band member. “He’ll come around.”

The thing was.. Louis didn’t. Louis didn’t come around and was still in the same bitchy mood when the five boys were to go up on stage. It really didn’t seem to faze Niall or Zayn at all, they were all used to it. But Liam saw how it made Harry uneasy. More so than it usually would, because yeah. After all the boy had been planning on proposing tonight. And as far as Liam knew he still was, but honestly with Louis and Harry you never really knew.

And so the show began and everything went okay. One and a half world tours had given them more than enough time to practice hiding little fall outs. That was of course only to the fans. Liam still had to witness the for him painfully obviously staged Larry moments that night. It made him cringe internally, especially when he saw the look in Harry’s eyes.

The boy was bent.

What finally broke him must have been the moment during ‘Little Things’. ‘Little Things’ was _their_ song and it had _their_ moment. Their moment in which they always shared a look. Always. Every single time they performed it.

But that evening as Louis’ solo rolled around and he sang it and finished it and _their_ moment was right there, where Harry took over and his solo followed, Louis did not so much as glance in Harry’s direction.

Harry saw it, Liam saw it.

It was painful to watch really and so Liam pretended not to notice when Harry missed a beat before starting to sing himself. He did however see Louis cringe at that and for a moment he thought no matter how much he loved Louis, he did deserve this.

Niall and Zayn had turned to glance from Harry to Louis and then Liam, subtly trying to cover up the general confusion going through the entire band right now. They finished the song and it was all okay, not good, but _okay_.

Taking their new positions on the stage Harry poked Liam slightly as he passed him and shook his head. The motion was barely visible but Liam understood.

No proposals again tonight.

~

The rest of the night was spent with a frustrated and crying Harry and an equally as frustrated and stubborn Louis, who wouldn’t admit to it. Liam was – again – caught in the middle, Harry’s head in his lap and loads of texts coming in from Louis who refused to come sit with them (not that Harry would have allowed it).

“Fuck you, both of you!” Liam wanted to scream. And then he wanted to take their heads and mush them together until they kissed and then he would force them to stop being stupid and finally admit that they were both crazy about each other and that they wanted to get married. But yeah, Harry was still kind of crying and Louis wasn’t even replying to Liam’s texts anymore (because apparently Harry was now the enemy and Louis couldn’t tolerate Liam bonding with the enemy, so there was that).

So the whole “Fuck you!”-and-then-marry-each-other plan wasn’t an option right now. And so for the night Liam let it be. But he swore to himself that he wasn’t going to take Louis’ and Harry’s crap much longer. And if it meant taking matters into his own hands, well then..

~

So three days later, when they finally had a few days off Liam took the whole morning to just sit in his flat and sip tea in silence. No crying, no drama, no playing football. Just peace and quiet.

But of course by noon he was fed up with the peace and quiet, in his head already coming up with plans on how to solve things with Harry and Louis. They were just insufferable. But he also loved them to pieces and so he found himself calling up Louis not much later, asking him to go out for lunch with him. Louis was still kind of mad at Liam, though Liam knew Louis did rationally understand that he had no reason to be cross with him. And so Louis said yes and Liam promised to come pick him up in a bit.

Lunch of course was only an excuse. Liam had never planned on actually getting food. But well, he wasn’t going to tell Louis that and the older boy only gazed out of Liam’s car slightly confused as they drove.

“I’ve never actually been out to eat around here.” Louis said as Liam took another turn. The younger boy chose not to reply, because what should he have said? He hadn’t been out to eat here and he wasn’t planning on either, so..

After he had parked the car and they both had gotten out, Liam tried to avoid catching Louis’ eyes, because he knew they’d be filled with confusion. There was no restaurant around here and Liam had just parked right in front of a jeweler. Louis couldn’t possibly be that stupid.

“Li, what are we doing here?”

Scratch that.

Liam didn’t reply however and only dragged Louis on with him as they entered the posh store. Louis’ protests and questions died down a bit as the stumbled inside, taken aback by the majestic silence as well as the shine and sparkle coming from all sides.

“Hello, gentlemen.” A young woman greeted as she came approaching them. She was dressed in a well fitted costume and loaded with jewelery. _How fitting_.

“Can I help you two with anything today? Looking for a special gift or anything?”

“Actually,” Liam spoke up, stepping forwards a little and dragging Louis along with him towards the counter “We’re looking for an engagement ring. My mate here is looking to pop the question for his boyfriend, so..” He said with a pointed look at the woman and she nodded.

“Of course.” She replied with a smile. “Right over here.”

She guided them a little further into the store to a large table with many crystalline drawers. They were loaded with all sorts of rings, ranging from simple silver or gold bands to huge diamonds or dark sapphires.

“Are you looking for something rather simple? We do have rings with birth stones as well.” The woman offered and Liam stepped back a little, nudging Louis in the side.

“I hate you.” The older boy muttered as he bent down to take a look at the drawers.

~

It took Louis quite some time to decide. He had absolutely no idea what he was looking for and with every ring the woman pointed out to him he said something like “Oh yeah, Harry would like that” or “That would look so good on him, wouldn’t it Li?”. And well. Liam was happy for his two best mates, but he wasn’t too fond of helping Louis decide which ring to get for over an hour.

“It’s a big deal.” Louis had scold him and Liam was just about to tell him that Harry wasn’t going to say no simply because he didn’t like the ring, but then the woman from across the counter shot him a pointed look and okay. Maybe it was a big deal. Liam wouldn’t know.

Louis was down to his top five now and Liam hadn’t sighed out loud in the past two minutes, so he was pretty sure he count that as a win. The vibration of his phone pulled his thoughts away from whether a silver or black band would Harry’s eye color better and he stepped back slightly to glance at the screen.

“I’m gonna take this call real quick, yeah?” Liam quipped and then stepped outside the store a moment later, bringing the phone up to his ear.

“Harry?”

“Yeah. Hi. Liam.”

“Hey?” He asked, slightly confused with Harry’s tumbling voice.

“You’re with Louis, right?”

“Erm, yeah.” He replied, shooting a quick look up and down the road. Paparazzi? Were there pictures? Did Harry find out were they were? Did he know that-

“Can you, erm, bring him over?”

“Over to..”

“His flat. I have.. a little something prepared. You know.”

“Oh. _Oh_.” And okay. That was just.. awkward timing. “I- We’re still onto something like right now, but we’ll be there in twenty minutes, alright?” He asked, hoping that he could pry Louis’ off the rings by then.

“Okay, I- Yeah. Make sure he’s in a good mood this time, yeah?” Harry asked, quieter now and Liam shot a quick look inside the store to gaze at Louis who was waving at him in excitement. Was that a ring in his hand?

“Oh he is. Don’t worry. I’ll see you.” Liam chipped back and then hung up on Harry, walking back into the store.

“You decided already?” Liam asked, sounding honestly surprised.

“Yes.” Louis replied with a wide grin. Liam stepped closer again to eye the slim silver band in Louis’ hand. It was simple enough, with three little stones captured in it.

“It’s lovely.” Liam told Louis honestly and Louis beamed back at him with wide eyes. “Harry’s gonna love it.”

~

“So?” Liam prompted as the left the store, a small and innocent looking black and white bag dangling from Louis’ wrist. “How does it feel?”

“Prepared?” Louis said tentatively, ignoring the fact that Liam had obviously meant to be teasing.

“Well then.” Liam smiled. “Nothing can go wrong this time then, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Louis agreed as they climbed into the car. “I don’t know when I’m gonna ask him. But I was thinking something.. smaller? Like, nothing _on stage_.” He chuckled lightly, almost as if he was over the fire incident. “Dinner or something. I’ll let you know.”

“You do that.” Liam replied with a grin and he couldn’t help but think that Louis probably wouldn’t need to come up with anything anymore. Not after what Harry had promised on the phone.

They rode in silence for a while and Liam felt excited, giddy almost as he drove closer and closer towards Louis’ flat.

“Hey, you wanna come upstairs real quick? I still have that hoodie of yours.” Louis offered and well- Liam really shouldn’t go up with him, when he was about to be proposed to, but he couldn’t say no either because that would just look suspicious. And he didn’t wanna ruin the surprise, neither for Louis nor for Harry, so yeah.

“Sure.”

~

Once Liam parked his car in front of the apartment complex Louis’ flat was at they climbed out of the car and slowly made their way through the front doors towards the elevator. Louis was still holding onto the bag in his hand tightly, letting it sway back and forth as they walked. Liam couldn’t help but glance at him with a small smile, thinking that finally – _finally_ – everything would go right for his two best friends.

That was of course until he got a text from Harry.

From: Harry

To: Liam

“ _Whatever you do just DON’T come back to his flat!!!!!!”_

Liam read the text, his eyes growing wide and he chocked a little which made Louis turn and make a funny face at him. Harry couldn’t be serious now.

To: Harry

From: Liam

“ _WTF? We’re here, suck it up.”_

Harry was not going to get out of this that easily. And anyways, even if Liam wanted to help his friend out with this, how was he going to tempt Louis to leave again now? Now that the elevator had just arrived and they both got on, Liam a little shakier on his legs than Louis.

No. Harry was not getting out of this now.

“Li?” Louis mumbled.

“Hmm.” Liam hummed, his eyes fixed on his phone to check whether there was a new reply from Harry. Maybe he couldn’t change that Louis and him were showing up right now, but he could at least give Harry some consolation if that’s what he needed.

“Li?” Louis asked again, sounding a little more wary this time and Liam looked up.

“Yeah?” He asked back, wondering when Louis’ grin had fallen and the bag in his hand was no longer swinging back and forth happily.

“What if- What if it’s too early?”

And no. This could _not_ be happening. Fifteen minutes ago both Harry _and_ Louis had been sure they wanted to do this and not both of them were doubting themselves again. Liam couldn’t believe it.

“He’s gonna say no anyways.” Louis continued as the elevator came to a stop and the two boys got off.

“Let’s get inside first, yeah?” Liam offered, pushing Louis towards the front door of his apartment lightly. There still was a chance that once they got inside everything would go right. Harry probably had the whole flat decorated in rose petals or something.

Just as Louis pulled out his key and started fiddling with it endlessly, the phone in Liam’s hand vibrated with another message from Harry.

From: Harry

To: Liam

“ _There may have been some… flames….”_

When Liam looked up from his phone again Louis was already halfway through the door, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

“What’s that smell?” He wondered out loud and a moment later Liam could smell it too. ‘ _Some_ flames’ as Harry had put it was definitely an understatement.

Louis took two long strides to follow the horrible smell to its source and Liam only quickly shut the front door before following him. Through the hallway and past the living room he ended up in the kitchen and the sight in front of him was somewhere between absolutely pathetic and incredibly hilarious.

The stove and most of it’s surroundings were covered in a mixture of black ash and white foam. Liam suspected the fire extinguisher on the floor had something to do with all that. Right next to the fire extinguisher stood Harry. His hair was messed up, foam caught in between his curls and the skin of his face and hands was covered in ash. The button up shirt he wore probably used to be white, but Liam couldn’t be sure. It generally all just looked like one big mess with Harry in the middle of it all, smiling apologetically.

“How do you two keep burning things down?” Liam wondered out loud, which only confused Louis and Harry more. They stood in silence for a while, Liam and Louis taking in the scene and Harry watching them warily, fearing their reactions.

As the silence dragged on Liam wondered if maybe he should say something. After all he had kind of been caught in between all this time and was the only one who knew the whole story. He glanced at Louis carefully to see what he was thinking, but Louis was only staring at something behind Harry’s head. Liam followed his gaze and his eyes finally fell on a very burned and smeared black banner. He stared at it for a while as well, trying to figure out what it said. Something along the lines of ‘WILL YOU MARRY ME?’. Yeah, that made sense.

Harry was turning around now too, glancing at the banner and then back at Liam and Louis. Liam was grinning widely, because well, maybe they would finally get moving now, but Louis looked a little shell shocked and Harry’s face fell right away.

“I- I’m sorry. This, erm, this is not how this was supposed to go. I was- erm- well. Please don’t- I just-” He kept stuttering, bowing his head in shame. He kept ranting on and on until he was interrupted by Louis’ laughter. The curly haired boy looked up in confusion, obviously still trying to figure out whether Louis laughing was a good or a bad thing.

“I once heard,” Louis began, fiddling with the bag in his hand “That great minds think alike.” And with those words he pulled out the little velvet box the lady from the store had wrapped the ring into neatly and flicked it open for Harry to see the ring.

The look on Harry’s face was priceless.

Tentatively he took a step forwards, pulling his own little black box out of his pocket to show Louis. They were both positively beaming when their eyes met and Louis was laughing again, taking another step forwards to wrap Harry into a tight hug, burrowing his head in his ash covered chest.

“We’re so stupid.” He gulped and Liam wasn’t all that sure if he was still laughing, or maybe crying. And as Harry reached down, tilting Louis’ chin upwards to kiss him Liam took it as his cue to quietly let himself out and finally let Harry and Louis be _HarryandLouis_ the way they always wanted to be.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments would be very lovely. xx
> 
> Find me on Tumblr! - http://hannahazza.tumblr.com/


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